ABSTRACT
In this article, the author writes from her perspective as an actor, in particular about her performance of the title character in Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie” (1921) with the Eugene O’Neill Foundation in Danville in 2023. She speaks in conversation with Pauline Lord, the first actor to portray Anna Christopherson, and specifically explores the question of what it means to love a character. She argues that to love requires a committment to feeling (living with the character) the struggle (the anger, pain, and shame) of what there could be to hate in the character and therefore ourselves. She argues that such a committment begins necessarily when the character is (when we are) brave enough to declare herself and have her say.
Anna Christie, O’Neill, love, perform, shame, hate, having her say, Pauline Lord, actor, declaration
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2024
The Pennsylvania State University
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